Chris

I’m sure I don’t have to say it so I won’t. (go out and vote today). Oh well, I said it anyway. It seems like many people are quite eager to cast a vote today. If the long lines are any indication. Some people even lined up last night.

I’m feeling pretty good today and optimistic so I will say that this bodes well for John Kerry. Let’s see if that optimism holds true as the day progresses.

And it also seems like their are a few problems already with voting machines and procedures in some states, as fellow blogger Megan Powell can attest.

And another blogger and voter Brian Nicks has a nice photo of the error he got when trying to use the electronic voting machine at his polling place. What about errors 1 through 8? Whose keeping track of those?

Ok, that’s it on the election stuff for now. I think I will just relax for awhile and then do some work later today as people go out and vote — silently exercising their rights.

Whatever the arguments or the spin, this fundamental right is one of the main reasons that this country is such a great place to live.

Happy voting all.

Osama Bin Laden is lonely. Much like the evil dictator, Kim Jong Il, in “Team America: World Police”. He decided to release a new video, as I’m sure you heard. Just to get attention. I wasn’t going to even talk about it but what the hell? What does this video mean for John Kerry and George Bush? For my money, very little at this point.

Many pundits will spin this “event” their own way. But in the end, people will react to OBL the way they always have since September 11th. They will want to see him dead. They want him dead no matter who is President. Does this mean seeing him will make Mr. Bush look weaker because he didn’t catch him? No. He’s been able to do that just fine already, thank you.

People already know OBL is running free and apparently now, in good health. Bush supporters will keep supporting Bush and Kerry supporters will keep supporting Kerry. The “undecided” voters will still be undecided until the last minute and then, probably vote for Kerry (well, I can hope at least). The only dumb thing that Kerry did was not harp on this more during the last days of the campaign.

I wanted to see him go on the offensive more and take President Bush to task. He didn’t. I hope it doesn’t hurt him. Don’t get me wrong, I endorse John Kerry for President. I just wish he was a little stronger in some areas. Like charisma. I know that shouldn’t matter but it does. Face it, he’s a little charm-challenged.

I guess I would just like to be blown away by someone who wants to be the President. I feel that the President should be the best of the best. He should be someone who speaks to the ordinary citizen as well as the elite power-brokers. He should be someone who gives a shit about the environment, health care, jobs, the economy and all the other stuff that doesn’t really get mentioned now that we are in a “war”. He should also be able to out-talk and out-debate anyone and know when to attack when he needs to.

Maybe the guy I am looking for doesn’t exist? I like to think he does. I like to think that somewhere out there, maybe in high school or college somewhere, is a guy (or a girl, why not?) with a new vision for this country. Someone who will take us to the next level and be a true leader for tomorrow and beyond. It would be nice if the Presidential race wasn’t between two billionaire middle-aged white guys for a change. Let’s get some new blood. Barack Obama anyone?

Whatever happens tomorrow, I will be bracing myself for the subsequent lawsuits and fighting between the parties and the eventual selection of the new President by the Supreme Court sometime in January.

Cynical? You bet. Of course, I could be wrong. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Later.

Just wanted to see how the new version of ecto works in OSX. So far, so good. I like it. Although, the prevsious version was very good and so easy to use. Oh well, progress is progress.

Have a great weekend all. Oh, and don’t forget to vote on Tuesday. In case you forgot or could escape all of the hype, I just thought I would mention it.

Later.

CBC is reporting about the 35th birthday of the internet, which is today. The story talks about the less-than-prophetic beginnings of the net: ‘In order to log in to the two-computer network, which was then called ARPANET, programmers at UCLA were to type in ‘log’, and Stanford programmers would reply with ‘in’. The UCLA programmers only got as far as ‘lo’ before the Stanford machine crashed.’

Must have been running Windows. No, of course not. Windows wasn’t even around then. Ahh, the good old days.

To celebrate in LA, their is a big event going on at UCLA today with speakers and such, all talking about the internet. Where’s its come from and where its going. Notably, the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, will discuss the future of the internet and how Google will come to dominate the world as we know it.

I hope the internet doesn’t get too drunk and make a fool of itself.

Later.

How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.

Later.

Apple launched a few new toys this week. Among them, the new Photo IPod and the cool U2 iPod. In basic black, as I predicted.

The Photo iPod lets you look at pictures on its color screen and sports a longer battery life of 15 hours! Better than the old iPods but for the price, it should be.

The U2 iPod is cool but I don’t like U2 enough to shell out the bucks for it. Besides, I already have a few iPods around the house and really, I’m waiting for the gold encrusted ABBA edition anyway.

It is nice to look at though.

Also, CNET is reporting that the Virginia Tech supercomputer a.k.a System X, which is made up of lots of G5 XServes (1100 to be exact), has reached 12.25 Teraflops.

For those non-geeks in the audience, that’s a crap load of computing power. This makes it in the top 5 of supercomputers in the world. Look out NEC earth simulator, we’re coming for you!

Later.

According to “The American Conservative” magazine, which is run by, of all people, Pat Buchanon, John Kerry is the one they like for President. Well, like may be too strong a word. But they don’t want GW to be re-elected and that’s good enough for me. This has to be good in the fight to woo “undecided” voters too.

This, and the growing list of publications that actually endorse John Kerry and things are looking up. I feel a shift in momentum. Yes I do.

Later.

Three anti-spyware bills are working their way through Congress, and the FTC has achieved its first victory in its lawsuit against “Spamford” Wallace. On Thursday the US District Court granted a temporary restraining order against Wallace prohibiting him from exploiting Internet vulnerabilities to place spyware on computers. Wallace was given 24 hours to pull his software from the web.

PalmOne has officially announced the release of the Treo 650. Sprint has cornered the market on the hot phone through sometime next year. Sprint says the phone will be available by mid-November and cost around $500. Wi-Fi support will not be available at first, but PalmOne does expect to make a Wi-Fi card for the phone eventually.

Sprint also crippled the bluetooth implementation on their version of the 650. One more reason not to use Sprint. Besides, I am loving T-Mobile here in Los Angeles. Any ATT users out there? I advise you to switch. T-Mobile works so much better.

Meanwhile Google shares were up another 15% on Friday, topping $180/share at one point. Thanks to a strong earnings report on Thursday, two analysts are saying it’s worth over $200.

An AOL survey shows that 20% of home computers are infected with viruses. 80% are infected with spyware. Infected machines had an average of 93 different spyware programs on them. Technical experts from AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance examined 329 computers in the survey. More than 70% of owners falsely thought they were protected from online threats.

The DOJ has given its go ahead for Cingular’s acquisition of AT&T Wireless. The merger now has to go to the FCC for approval. I wonder if they will get it? The merger will give Cingular 47.6 million subscribers, making it the number one wireless carrier in the US of A.

The tech industry received a big tax break on Friday. President Bush signed a bill offering $136 billion in corporate tax relief, including a reduction from 35% to %5.25 in the tax rate on foreign profits for US multinationals. The breaks have been criticized for encouraging offshoring of jobs, but the US tech industry lobbied heavily for them saying they needed the money for additional R&D and investment. Senator Feinstein’s amendment requiring companies to spend their tax windfall in the US was rejected.

And, Apple’s big press conference is today. Will they announce the new U2 iPod? We’ll see.

Mmm theme iPods. Interesting. Supposedly in basic black for the U2 one. Now, if I could just get a computer that color. A black 12″ powerbook would be cool. Or, maybe a black G5 tower. What can I say, I like black. Probably all those years in the movie business.

Later.

John Stewart on C-Span right after his appearence on “Corssfire”. Must see TV.

Also, the British Armed Forces have officially recognized a naval technician as a satanist, meaning that he can conduct satanic rituals on board the HMS Cumberland. This is a first for them, obviously. What can they say? The devil made them do it?

And, from the “what the fuck are they doing?” department:

It seems that hundreds of tons of high explosives are, ah, how do you say it . . . . . gone. At least according to the United Nations watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that was keeping an eye on the explosives before the war.

My personal favorite quote from Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the group: “Our immediate concern is that if the explosives did fall into the wrong hands they could be used to commit terrorist acts and some of the bombings that we’ve seen,” Fleming said.

You think? Oh, who was watching the explosives after the IAEA left Iraq? Why us, of course. Think about this when you go to the polls people.

Later.